I am so lucky to have a good friend like Anna to fill in for me at the preschool when I need to leave town for a few days. I heard about the children's adventures in felted wool bracelet making early in the week, but I wasn't there to take part.

At drop off this morning we were told it would be the last day for one of our kids. Gulp. Her mother starts a full-time job on Monday so they need full-time care for their daughter...which we are not able to provide. The sudden news of her leaving sent me reeling...I had to quick think of a parting gift. Digging through the felted wool sweater basket I found some scraps so I could quickly stitch her a present during free play.

A heart with it's own little pouch seemed like the perfect thing. At sharing time the kids got to pass the heart and say a little good-bye wish to their friend. By pick up time the kids added more treasures to her little pouch...an acorn, a shell and a dragon tear.

On Tuesday we will have our Harvest Festival (also know as Michaelmas). In preparation for the craft I'd like to do, I needed a bunch of wooden discs...luckily, my partner and her husband have all the right wood cutting equipment and were able to make these for me.

While traveling to and from Boston earlier this week I managed to stitch up a few squares. Just as the taxi pulled up to my house, I quickly grabbed a few random balls of yarn and a hook and threw them in my bag. I like having a simple project in my hand when flying and this took up no space at all. I used mohair, wool and cotton for these squares, alternating between single and double crochet.

Each will eventually become a bunny or a kitten, and will likely find it's way into the loving arms of a child someone. (Although, I'm not too sure about that rainbow one....)

Such happy shades of grey. An assortment of textiles are catching my eye again this week...a sure sign I am craving to work on something. So many ideas racing through my mind, I'll have to slow down and focus, and just begin.

It's been all about the sunflowers at the preschool since we returned.

It has been fun to watch the children, eyes full of fascination, looking up at the humongous faces on the sunflowers in our garden...

...and spying little creatures buried int their petals.

It made sense to me then, that for the first project of the year we would create our own. It was a good exercise for us too...we could get a feel for where all the new children are in some basic preschool exercises...like using a scissors and properly holding a paint brush. There were quite a few steps involved, from painting the flower centers, to painting and cutting out the petals. Once the petals were glued on, each child taped a piece of looped string on the back for hanging. They were delighted with their creations.

Sadly though, we will not be having our own sunflower revolution (as I had hoped) since the squirrels have run away with every single sunflower head.

Today's mosaic is inspired by the abrupt change in the weather we are experiencing right now. Autumn is definitely on the horizon. We had one day in the nineties last week and tonight we are expected to dip to the thirties. The trees are beginning their showy finale to close out summer and I once again have knitting on my mind.

Thanks to all the artists for sharing thier beautiful photographs with us on flickr. You are a constant source of inspiration.

And thank you to Monika for your kind words regarding my mosaics-I truly do enjoy putting them together.

It happens quite often. I get super excited about something and I start experimenting and playing and before I know it I have a bunch of started projects with no end in sight. So when hit with the weaving bug last week, I was left with these.

Last week my mom, sister and I finally made it to the American Swedish Institute to see the tapestries of Helena Hernmarck. I was completely fiber-struck! It would be impossible to see this exhibit without leaving feeling totally inspired. In fact, I began a small weaving project the very next day. If you live near Minneapolis, don't miss the opportunity to see her amazing work in person...it runs through October 14.

A sampling of some of my favorites...

tulips

it's all in the details...

...to try and appreciate the size of this piece, here is my sister standing next to it.

From this collection of textiles...

...she created this beautiful tapestry.

I love the red thread in the above detail. All these photos were taken by my phone and they are not great, but you can still appreciate all the detail in her work.

To see more of this talented artist, I encourage you to check out her website.

If you live in the Twin Cities come and support your public high school art teachers at The First Annual Teacher Exhibition. What a great way to honor them. I am very proud that my sister is not only going to be showing her paintings, but that one of them made it on the poster. Way to go Sistah!!

I'm also wondering how I could revisit this weaving project we did at my preschool the first year. We now have three times the number of students as we did in the beginning so working with 19 children on a weaving project like that feels a bit daunting.